With my own eyes
Are you like me – do you use the Waze app to try to avoid traffic jams?
The other day I was driving from northeast to deep southwest in Portland, and the phone told me to stay on surface streets. As it was late afternoon, I obeyed. Obviously the 'bot knew more than I did about something. Stay off the freeways, it said.
And so down MLK I dutifully went, through the dopey Sam Adams Couch Street jughandle (some developer cashed in on that one, for sure), across the Burnside Bridge, right on Second, right on Couch, right on Naito (the new, awful, car-hater "better" Naito), and south along Waterfront Park.
Looking around, I was astounded. It was a ghost town. This was 4:00 on a weekday afternoon. There was next to no traffic. The parking lots were only about a quarter or a third full. There was only a pedestrian or two in sight.
And now the geniuses in Salem are going to hand out $1,000 a month to the wiseguy junkies in their tents down there. When I first heard about that one, I thought it was a joke, but of course, it's an actual bill that's being seriously considered in the legislature.
Every addict and street thief in the country will be here before long.
Oh, well. Portland's dead – might as well bury it.
That fountain you photographed was recently an area full of tents. They were cleared out recently, though it seems the city does a poor job cleaning up after the campers’ sh*t. It probably will just be a matter of days before the tents return - because the city does zero follow up enforcement. Totally incompetent
ReplyDeleteIsn’t much to draw normal people to that part of downtown.
ReplyDeleteSo much for 1% for the arts.
ReplyDeleteWhat? The “peeing choirboys” fountain is inoperable?
ReplyDelete